Mar 06, Colombo: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), has determined that Sri Lanka is a country that is compliant with their Standards, at its meeting on 22 February 2013, the Central Bank said in a release.

The FATF is an inter-governmental body of 36 member countries and regional organizations that sets global policy and standards on Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT).

The organization as part of its on-going review of compliance with the AML/CFT standards has identified Sri Lanka as a jurisdiction which has provided a written high-level political commitment to address strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.

According to the Central Bank, such determination is expected to improve global investor confidence, since Sri Lanka is now fully compliant with regulations on preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.

Sri Lanka in February 2010 made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and Asia/Pacific Group (APG) on Money Laundering to address its strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.

Since then, according to the FATF, Sri Lanka has made significant progress to improve its AML/CFT regime, including by enacting legislation to adequately criminalize money laundering and terrorist financing; and establishing and implementing adequate procedures to identify and freeze terrorist assets.

The FATF said it will conduct an on-site visit to confirm that the process of implementing the required reforms and actions is underway to address deficiencies previously identified by the FATF.